[Me]

For the first two years since I got my 2016 BMW 4 google maps send to car was working. Now it appears it doesn't.

When I try to send to car a confirmation is displayed saying it is successfully sent. But it never appears in my messages list in the car. I tried deleting and recreating the car info in the google maps settings but nothing changed.

Note, this is not a recent problem. I don't add map messages very often but it's been at least more than a a month or two this has been going on.

Can anyone confirm whether the problem is just my car or google maps send to car is not working in general?

Thanks in advance.

[zamboni]

You need to subscribe to BMW Connect service for this feature.

[Me]

I am subscribed to ConnectedDrive. As I said it was working for my first two years. I even made sure the login id was correct by logging into connecteddrive.bmwusa.com just to make sure the email address and password still worked. It's that email address you specify to the connect to car setup.

[Billfitz]

My handshake between Google maps and the car stopped working over a year ago. I then found how to use Connected Drive to do the same thing. When my Connected Drive came up for renewal I didn't bother, as the only thing I'd ever used it for was to send addresses to the nav, had only done so a few times, and I can add addresses manually in the car anyway. I did renew the Real Time Traffic when they put it on sale for $50, as avoiding one major traffic jam is worth the price.

[ooshnoo]

Here's what you do.

1. Find the address you want using Google Maps on your phone.
2. "Share" that address with the Connected Drive app.
3. Use Connected Drive app to send the address to your car.

[mbanks21]

I called them yesterday because my Connect wasn't working. They said it's a known issue but no time frame for it to be up again.

[xlover]

connected drive app can do it all on its own as well, thats how i do it now

[PennSt8]

Originally Posted by xlover

connected drive app can do it all on its own as well, thats how i do it now

Ditto! If you search for an address utilizing the Connected Drive App, you have the option to send to vehicle or "GO". Selecting "GO" will automatically commence guidance.

[bimmer456]

I thought OP could send directly from google maps to the car. I have sent from google maps to the connected app and then from the connected app to my car, but searching on the connected app seems faster with fewer steps though the search isn't as good as google maps with its machine learning and knowing the search history, etc.

[Billfitz]

Originally Posted by bimmer456

I thought OP could send directly from google maps to the car.

Once upon a time, yes, but not for a while now.

[Gen13 F36]

I got same issue here...my2016 f36 connected drive not working...im going to check with the dealer when i come in for service very soon. I know i have a subcription till the end of my new warranty 4yrs/50k miles....as stated with the paper work when i bought the car.

[Me]

Originally Posted by mbanks21

I called them yesterday because my Connect wasn't working. They said it's a known issue but no time frame for it to be up again.

Who did you call? BMW or Google? And if it's Google what number did you use?

As for using an "app". I'm one of those people that doesn't use a cell phone. There's no app for that!

Well at least I know I am not alone in this.

[mbanks21]

Originally Posted by Me

Who did you call? BMW or Google? And if it's Google what number did you use?

As for using an "app". I'm one of those people that doesn't use a cell phone. There's no app for that!

Well at least I know I am not alone in this.

I called bmw because my remote vent wasn't working. They said they've been having Connected issues the last few days

[tex2670]

The last time mine worked was last spring or summer (I still have the address in my Office). When it did work, I usually had to go thru the send process on Google Maps at least 2x. Lately I have just used the BMW Connected app.

[Me]

I called BMW Genius and he said they are aware of the google maps send to car problem and believe it's a google problem since sending to car through connecteddrive works. I wasn't even aware that there was an alternate path to send an location to the car! Someone mentioned this above but at that point it didn't sink in.

For those who also didn't know here's how to do it.

1. Login at https://connecteddrive.bmwusa.com.
2. Click My services.
3. Click the appropriate checkbox Send data to following vehicle(s) if not already checked.
4. Enter location in the "Enter a query" in Navigation destination.
5. Click send.

Unfortunately you can't create a custom tag like google's send to car but at least it's better than entering the info from inside the car albeit not as convenient as google maps send to car (apparently the login times out after you leave the site).

I verified this scheme works so it's probably google's problem. But I wonder if google even knows about since the problem has been around for at least a month or more.

[Billfitz]

The problem has been around for over a year. I used to be able to look up an address on Google maps, then get directions, and Google gave the option of sending it to the car. One day that option went away never to be seen again, replaced by send to phone.

[tex2670]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

The problem has been around for over a year. I used to be able to look up an address on Google maps, then get directions, and Google gave the option of sending it to the car. One day that option went away never to be seen again, replaced by send to phone.

That's odd. Because I still have that option; and when I select it, my car is there, and Google Maps confirms that the destination was sent to my car. I just rarely ends up in my nav.

[Billfitz]

I just did some digging around, with odd results. I looked up an address just this side of the Canadian border, then clicked on the send to phone option. That took me to a screen that gave the options of to the car or to my phone. It's never done that before. I clicked to the car, and got a confirmation that it was sent to BMW. Whether or not they forward it to the car remains to be seen. I then went across the border by 100 yards and clicked on send to phone. The screen that gave the car versus phone option did not come up.

[Me]

One of the experiments I performed was to remove the google maps send to car account setting and recreate it. Out of curiosity I gave it an invalid account to see what would happen. When I did the send to car google confirmed that it successfully sent it to the car.

So the moral of all this, google ships it off and doesn't care whether it gets into the car or not. Maybe there's no hand shaking so that's all it can do but I don't know for sure if google can even get back a success or failure response. I would think however that it could verify the account settings when you specify it.

[Billfitz]

Sent it to the car? Or to BMW? As best I recall two years ago when I used it regularly it said sent to car, today it said sent to BMW. I also recall that the problems with it began right after Google made a complete change to their account system.

[Me]

When you click the send button a dialog appears that says "Sending" and that is replaced by "Your destination has been sent". It doesn't mention BMW and I don't recall it ever did.

I have to assume the info is sent to BMW's connecteddrive which in turn transmits it to the car. I base that on the fact that all you specify to google maps settings for this is the manufacturer and in our case the connecteddrive login id. Google uses that (or should use that) to log into connecteddrive with some low-level convention to use the connecteddrive navigation destination. So the problem lies with the protocol google is using to do this login and send the data. Of course that means either google changed something or BMW is not off the hook in that they could have changed their protocol.

I wonder if this problem is BMW specific or does it affect all car brands that support this feature.

[dr adequate]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

My handshake between Google maps and the car stopped working over a year ago. I then found how to use Connected Drive to do the same thing. When my Connected Drive came up for renewal I didn't bother, as the only thing I'd ever used it for was to send addresses to the nav, had only done so a few times, and I can add addresses manually in the car anyway. I did renew the Real Time Traffic when they put it on sale for $50, as avoiding one major traffic jam is worth the price.

Just for you info I got the RTTI renewal around Black Friday for $30, so keep an eye out if you want to renew again